How O-1 visa is talented Indians new route to the American Dream
O-1 visa
a lesser known route. As reported by The Economic Times, Indian professionals are going for O-1 visas which is a specialised non-immigrant visa for individuals with 'extraordinary ability' in fields like STEM, arts, business, and sports.
After the unpredictable nature of popular H-1B visa, the O-1 visa is gaining a lot of traction among Indians who wish to go and work in the US. As per the report by Economic Times, Indian were granted 487 O-1A visas in FY 2020, this number was increased to 1,418 in FY 2023. With this increase, India became the third largest recipient of O-1 visa after UK and Brazil.
The O-1 Visa is introduced under the Immigration Act of 1990. The Visa has total eight criterions and the applicants are required to fulfil at least three of them. These criterions include demonstration of national and international acclaim. These include published work, awards, original contributions, and media coverage. While the process of O-1 visa is difficult and it's cost can range from $10,000 to $30,000, but its approval rate is 93% much higher than 37% for H-1B visa.
The ET report also mentions entrepreneurs like Soundarya Balasubramani, who launched an educational venture in the U.S., are among the new wave of Indian applicants using the O-1 to bypass the H-1B bottleneck. 'I got my O-1A approved as the solo founder and 100% owner of an educational venture,' she told ET.
The report also adds that companies like Google, Tesla, OpenAI are using the O-1 visa route to tap Indian talent and are also encouraging potential candidates to publish research or attend conferences to strengthen their application.
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